Harley N. Bushnell was born in Starksborough, Vt., the youngest of
thirteen children in his father's family, Feb. 18th, 1796.
When he was fifteen years old, he went to Connecticut to learn the trade
of a clothier of his brother. He served as an apprentice in that
business five years, and received thirty days schooling in the time. In
February, 1817, he came to Batavia, Genesee County, and went to work at
his trade. In august afterwards his employer ran away, owing Mr.
Bushnell one hundred Dolores, and the Sheriff came, and seized all his
employer's property,. Turning

Bushnell out of business. He finally bought the establishment and ran
it on his own account, and with a partner; but in the end found it a
losing business. After a time he gave up his trade and was elected
constable. In this business he was not successful in laying up money,
and in the end found himself about even with the world.

He did some business as a justice, and labored some at his trade
until February, 1823, he removed to Holley, north of where the canal now
is, which was then covered with felled timber, not cleared off; bought
two acres of ground and leased two acres more for a mill pond. He
commended getting out timber for a house eighteen by twenty-four feet
square, hewing and framing it at the stump. There was considerable snow
on the ground, and on the snow crust mornings, he drew all the timber
for his house to the spot with a rope over his shoulder. After getting
his family settled in his new house, he cleared off part of his land,
and with the help of his neighbors at one or two "bees," he
built a log dam, got out timber and built a sawmill, and began sawing
about May 1st, 1824. In 1825, in company with Samuel Clarke
he built works for wool carding and cloth dressing at Holley.

In October, 1826, his house burned with all its contents, In two
weeks he had another house up. In June, 1828, he bought the interest of
his partner in the wool carding and cloth dressing works, which he
carried on alone until 1833, when he sold out and bought a farm. After a
few years he sold his farm, moved to Holley, and ever after did business
as an insurance agent.

For many years he was Superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday
School in Holley.

He was one of the founders of the Orleans County Pioneer Association,
and many year its President.
He was kind hearted, genial man, benevolent and philanthropic,
earnest and zealous in support of every good cause, and died lamented by
all who knew him, October 28th, 1868.

ARETAS PIERCE.

Aretas Pierce was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, March 27th,
1799. He came with his father's family to settle in Clarendon, where he
arrived April 7th, 1815. The family moved into a house built
for a school house, until they could build a house for themselves.

They built a house and moved into it April 24th, 1815. The
first year they lived on provisions they brought in with them. The next
year being the cold season, they bought rye at one dollars and
twenty-five cents a bushel, and pork at twenty-five dollars a barrel, in
Palmyra. The next year they were out of bread stuff before harvest, and
ate green what boiled in milk as a substitute, and what is strange none
of the family had dyspepsia.

He married Matilda Stedman, May 8th, 1823, and has always
resided on the lot originally taken by his father.

When his father came in it was an unbroken wilderness on the west,
from his place to the Oak Orchard Road, eight miles; north to Sandy
Creek, four miles; east two miles; south to Farwell's Mills, Eldridge
Farwell, a. Dudley, John Cone, Wm. Austin and Mr. West, had settled in
Clarendon, and other settlers towards Sandy Creek came in the same year
as Mr. Pierce. A few came before them.

In the years 1817-18, the inhabitants in this settlement suffered for
want of food.

Samuel Miller worked for Artemas Daggett, chopping wood for one
dollar a day and board himself. All he had to eat, most of the time, was
corn meal
and water; but he did not complain or tell of it then.

Ebenezer Fox settled a mile and a half east of Murray depot, and all
they had to eat for a number of weeks was what they could pickup in the
woods. The best they could find was the inner bark of the beech tree.

Mrs. Fox had a young babe, and her next oldest child was in feeble
health, and she had to nurse them both to keep them from starving.

Almost all the money the settlers had was obtained by leaching ashes
and boiling the lye to black salts, and taking these to Gaines or
Clarkson and selling them for about three dollars a hundred pounds.

After 1818 the country filled up rapidly with settlers and more
produce began to be raised than was wanted for home consumption. The
price of what fell to twenty-five cents a bushel, and only thirty-one
cents after hauling to Rochester, and so remained until the Erie Canal
was opened.

Mr. Pierce settled on lands owned by the Pultney Estate, and these
did not come into market for sale until 1821, though settlers were
allowed to locate themselves with the expectation of buying their land
when it came into market. The price of his lot was fixed at eight
dollars per acre, but having expended so much in building and clearing,
he was compelled to pay the price or suffer loss by abandoning all he
had done.

The reason given by the company for not bringing their lands into
market was, they had "so much business on hand, they could not
attend to it," but the settlers thought they were waiting to have
the canal located before establishing their price.

HUBBARD RICE.

Hubbard rice was born in Pompey, Onondaga County, July 28th, 1795. He removed with his father' family to
the town of Murray, and settled on a lot adjoining the village of
Holley, in May 1812. His father, Mr. William Rice, continued to reside
on this place until about the year 1830, he went to Ohio to reside with
his children, and died there.

Hubbard rice lived with his father until 1825, then he moved to the
south part of Clarendon, where he remained until he removed to Holley in
1804, where he still resides, 1871.

After Lewiston was burned in the late war with England, Mr. Hubbard
Rice, then a boy of eighteen years, volunteered as a soldier and served
a campaign on the Niagara Frontier.

Coming to Holley when a boy, he grew up to manhood there, seeing and
sharing in all the toils, dangers, hardships and privations which the
settlers endured.

He has been spared to a ripe old age to witness the founding, growth
and development of a beautiful village on a spot he has seen when it was
a native forest covered with mighty hemlock, through which now by canal,
railroad, and telegraph, the commerce and intelligence of the world are
flowing.

CHAUNCEY ROBINSON.

Chauncey Robinson was born in Durham, Connecticut, January 5th,
1792. When he was two years old he was carried with his father's family
to Sauquoit, Oneida County, n. Y., where, to use his own words, "I
was educated in a district school, and graduated, at twelve years of
age, between the plow handles."

He removed to Clarendon, Orleans county, and settled about two miles
south of Farwell's Mills, July, 1813; cleared a farm and carried it on
until May, 1851,
he removed to Holley, where he resided until his death, which took
place May 8th, 1866.

In the war with England in 1814, he was called out with the other
inhabitants of the frontier generally to aid in repelling the British
who were then besieging Fort Erie.

He was several months in this service; was in the battle and sortie
at Fort Erie, September 17th, 1814, which was the last battle
of the war fought on this frontier.

Very few families had located in Clarendon when Mr. Robinson went
there. He began in the woods, built a log house, and all its fixtures,
furniture and surroundings, were in the primitive style of those times.

He was a man of ardent temperament, a fluent and earnest talker \in
private conversation, or public debate, noted for his intense hatred of
slavery and oppression, and his love of freedom and free government, and
for his zeal in the cause of temperance. Upon this and kindred topics he
frequently wrote articles for the newspapers.

He was an active man in organizing the town of Clarendon, laying out
and opening highways, and locating school district, frequently holding
public office as the gift of his fellow townsmen. He was Supervisor of
Clarendon four years, in succession. He was an original and free thinker
on those subjects of public policy which excited his attention,
enforcing his doctrines with a zeal which some of his opponents thought
fanatical.

In his personal habits he was industrious, frugal and temperate. When
he was an old man he said: "I have never used one pound of tea,
coffee, or tobacco, and comparatively little liquor; none for the last
thirty years; not even cider. My constant drink at home and abroad is
cold water."

HIRAM FRISBIE.

Hiram Frisbie was born in Granville, N. Y., Aug., 1791. He first came
to Orleans County with a view of taking the job of building the
embankment for the Erie Canal, at Holley. Failing in this he went with
his brother-in-law, William Pierpont, to Farwell's Mills in the town of
Clarendon, and opened a store there in 1821. They sold goods and made
pot and pearl ashes there, Pierpont also keeping tavern several years,
when Pierpont sold out the whole business to Mr. Frisbie, who managed it
all alone several years, until the insolvency of some leading merchants
in Holley made an opening for his business there, he then closed out in
Clarendon and moved to Holley to reside about the year 1828 or 1829.

In connection with Mr. James Seymour of Clarkson, he bought all the
unsold land in Holley, of a one hundred acre tract, which had been taken
up originally by Mr. Areovester Hamlin.

At Holley he sold goods as a merchant, built houses, sold village
lots, bought produce, opened street, and became wealthy from the rise in
price of his lands and the profits of his trade.

He was appointed postmaster soon after he came to Holley, an office
he held fifteen years.

Some years ago he was thrown from his carriage while driving some
high spirited horses, several of his bones broken and was so badly
injured as to render him incapable of active labor, as before. He still
resides in Holley, one of the few old men yet remaining who settled here
before the canal was made. Enjoying in quiet the avails of a long life,
of busy industry and sagacious investment.

JACOB HINDS.

Jacob Hinds was born in the town of Arlington,
Bennington County, Vt. He settled in the town of Murray in 1829, and
bought a farm which had been taken up by article from the State of
Connecticut by Jared Luttenton.

The Erie Canal passes through this farm. Boating on the canal was
then brisk, and no station between Albion and Hulberton was established
at which boatmen could get their supplies.

Mr. Hinds built a grocery store and began that business.

It was a good location from which to ship wheat, which began to be
produced in considerable quantities, and Mr. Hinds built a warehouse in
1830. About this time his brothers Joel, Darius, and Franklin, came on
and joined him in business, and being active, energetic business men, a
little settlement sprang up around them, which was named Hindsburgh.

Jacob Hinds had been engaged in boating on the canal and became
acquainted with the canal and its boatmen and men engaged in traffic
through it; in 1839 he was appointed Superintendent of Repairs on the
western section, an office he held three years.

After an interval of ten years, in 1849 he was elected one of the
State Canal Commissioners, and served three year in that capacity.

Since retiring from these office, Mr. Hinds has followed farming as
his principal occupation.

Austin Day.

Austin Day was born in Windhall, Vermont, April 10th. 1789.

He married Polly Chapman,. July 23d, 1810. He moved to the town of
Murray, in the winter of 1815.

For some years after he came to Murray he served as a constable, and
being a good talked he practiced
pettifogging, or acted as counsel in justice's courts, and for a
number of years, and until professional lawyers came in,. he did a large
business.

After the Erie Canal was made navigable, he engaged in buying wheat,
which he followed some years, shipping large quantities chiefly from
Holley.

He was appointed Judge in the Old Court of common Pleas, of Orleans
County, an office he held five years.

He was elected sheriff of Orleans County in November, 1847, and held
the office three years. In January, 1848, he removed to Albion, where
until within a few years he has resided. He was Supervisor of Barre in
1852.

His wife died October 15th, 1858, which broke up his
family, and since then he has resided in the family of his son, F. A.
Day, in Albion, and lately with his daughter, Mrs. Buell, in Holley,
relieved from the cares and anxieties of business.

ELIJAH W. WOOD.

Elijah W. wood was born in Pelham, Mass., April 22d, 1782. He removed
to the town of Murray at an early day, where for many years he served as
Constable and Justice of the Peace, and during one term of five years,
he was Judge in the Old Court of Common Pleas of Orleans County.

He was a shrewd and successful pettifogger in justices' courts, where
he made up in wit and natural sagacity any lack he may have suffered in
legal attainments. He died in Murray at the age of eighty years.

RECOLLECTIONS OF MRS. SALLY SMITH.

"I was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, in 1795. My father
removed wit his family, including myself,
to LeRoy, New York, in 1816. We were twenty-one days on the journey.

I came to Murray in 1817, and taught school in district No. 8, in a
log house in which a family resided at the time. My wages were nine
shillings a week and boarded among my patrons. I taught eight months
during which time I was happy and fared well.

While I was boarding at the house of David Gould, in the winter time,
his stock of fodder for his cattle gave out and he was obliged to feed
them with 'browse,' and to save them from starving on such fare he went
to Victor, Ontario county, and bought a load of corn for his cattle. His
brother-in-law brought the corn to Murray on a sleigh with two horses,
and arrived at Mr. Gould's house late in the evening of a cold and
stormy night.

There was no stable nearer then Sandy Creek, three miles, where the
horses could be sheltered. Mr. Gould's house had but one room, but it
was concluded to keep the horses there over night. Mr. Gould and wife
occupied a bed in a corner of the room, two girls and myself had our bed
with its foot at the side of Mr. Gould's bed, and the horses stood in
the other corner and ate their corn, and thus we all slept that night as
we could.

I married Artemas Daggett, February 14th, 1819, and
commenced housekeeping on the farm where I now reside, September, 1870.

Mr. Daggett died in 1831 and left me with three small children and
one hundred acres of land, owing about nine hundred dollars. In two
years I raised the money and paid our debts and took a deed of the land.

About this time I married Isaac smith, with whom I lived in peace and
plenty until his death in August, 1866.

During a great sickness at Sandy Creek, Mr. Brace, his wife, and six
children resided there. One of his daughters fell sick and went to the
house of a doctoress in town to be treated. Others of the children were
taken ill. Mr. brace was notified that his daughter under the doctoress'
care was much worse and he went to see her. She died and he was taken
down sick and could not go home. In the mean time a son at home died.
Mrs. Brace had taken sold care of him in his sickness and while watching
his corpse the dead body of Mr. Brace was brought home and father and
son buried at the same time. The other sick ones recovered.

At this time Mr. Aretas Pierce, Sr., who lived four miles away, came
and found the Brace family miserably poor, and destitute of all the
comforts and most of the necessaries of life. He went about and got a
contribution, and next day the pressing wants of the family were
supplied by the benevolent settles around.

Murray, September., 1870. SALLY SMITH."

ALANSON MANSFIELD.

Alanson Mansfield was born in Vermont, March 9th, 1793.

With an ax which constituted his whole personal estate, he came into
the town of Murray in the year 1814, and hired out to work, chopping
until he earned enough to take an article of lot number two hundred and
nineteen, a little north of Hindsburgh. He then returned to Vermont to
being his father's family to settle on his land. They started from
Vermont, his father and mother and six children,--Alanson being oldest
of the children,--with a pair of horses and a sleigh, in which was a
barrel of pork and some meal, a few household goods and the family. A milch cow was led behind. The port and meal and milk of the cow
supplied most of their provisions on the road, and helped sustain them
after arriving in Murray, until they could otherwise be supplied.

They arrived in the winter of 1815, put up a log house for a
dwelling, and began clearing the timber from a piece of land, and the
first season planted the corn from four ears among the logs, from which
they raised a good crop.

He married Polly Hart, in Murray, October 14th, 1817. Her
father settled near where Murray depot now stand, in 1816.

He united with the Baptist Church in Holley, in 1831. The next year
the Gaines and Murray Baptist Church on the Transit was formed, and
Mansfield untied with them and was chosen deacon. He was a worthy,
honored and good man, and died respected by all who knew him September
30th, 1850.

ABNER BALCOM.

Abner Balcom was born in Richfield, Otsego county., N. Y., September
15, 1796, and brought up in Hopewell, Ontario County.

He married Ruth Williams, of Hopewell, March, 1816. She died in
March, 1822.

In the fall of 1822, he married Philotheta Baker. She died February 7th,
1865, and for his third wife he married Mrs. Philena Waring.

In the fall of 1812, in company with his older brother, Horace, and
two other men, he chopped over twenty-two acres on lot one hundred and
ninety-two, which Horace had purchased in the spring of 1816, and where
he died. This was the first clearing in Murray, on this line between the
Ridge and Clarendon.

Mr. Abner Balcom first settled in the town of
Ridgeway, on the farm now or lately owned by Grosvenor Daniels, to
whom he sold it and removed to Murray before the canal was made.

In company with Mr. Hiel Brockway he built the dam and mills on the
west branch of Sandy Creek, on lot one hundred and ninety-five, near
which he has ever since resided.

These mills, a sawmill and gristmill, are known as "Balcom's
Mills," and in them Mr. Balcom has always retained an interest.

Mr. Balcom has always been much respected among his fellow townsmen.
He has held all the town offices except clerk. He served as supervisor
of Murray in 1847-8. He is an influential and consistent member of the
Transit Baptist Church, in which he has been deacon.

His son, Francis Balcom, was among the volunteers who went into the
Union Army in the first years of the great rebellion, and was killed in
battle while gallantly fighting to save the country which the
instructions of his father and instincts of his own nature had taught
him to love.

REUBEN BRYANT.

Reuben Bryant was born in Templeton, Worcester County, Massachusetts,
July 13th, 1792. He graduated at Brown University, Rhode
island, about the year 1815.

After some time spent in teaching, he removed to Livingston County,
N. Y., and studied law in the office of the late Judge Smith, in
Caledonia. Having been admitted to the bar of the Supreme court, he
settled to practice his profession in Holley about the year 1823, in
which village he was the pioneer lawyer.

In the fall of 1849 he removed to Albion, and in 1855 he removed to
buffalo to aid his only son, William C. Bryant, a rising young lawyer just getting into practice in
that city.

He was appointed Master in Chancery by Governor Silas Wright, an
office he held when the Court of Chancery was abolished under the
Constitution of 1846.

He was a thorough classical scholar, and had his mind well stored
with Greek and Latin lore, which he delighted to quote in social moments
wit his friends when circumstances made it proper.

As a lawyer he had a clear perception of the law and the facts., and
of their bearing in his cases; but he was too exact, cautious, and
diffident of himself to be an advocate. All his life he suffered forma
malady which was a perpetual burden and cross to him, and annoyed him in
his business. He died in Buffalo in January, 1863.